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Image Factory Utility

Automate Creation of WIM Files

For full change log and more information, visit my site.

Image Factory Utility is available from:

Please consider supporting my work:

Please report any problems via the ‘issues’ tab on GitHub.

Thanks -Mike

Features and Requirements

  • This utility is designed to run on a computer with Microsoft Deployment Toolkit installed.
  • The computer must have either the Hyper-V management PowerShell modules installed, or Virtual Box.
  • The primary function of this utility is to automate the creation of wim files from MDT task sequences.
  • The utility requires at least PowerShell 5.0.
  • This utility has been tested on Windows 11, Windows 10, Windows Server 2019, Windows Server 2016 and Windows Server 2012 R2.

Virtual Box Support

This utility expects Oracle Virtual Box to be installed in the default location of: C:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox

Important Information

The utility will make changes to your customsettings.ini file, although it will make a backup first. These changes are necessary so that the build process runs automated. Depending on your environment, you may need to make additional changes to your customsettings.ini.

Separating your build and deployment shares

I would recommend running with a separate build share so that:

  • The Image Factory Utility doesn't tie up the main deployment share whilst running.
  • The build environment can be configured separately.
  • The boot media for the build share can be configured to automatically log into the deployment environment.

Here are the settings you'll need to add to your Bootstrap.ini to automatically log into the build share. Don't forget to update your build share in MDT and regenerate the boot images.

[Settings]
Priority=Default

[Default]
DeployRoot=[path\]BuildShare$
UserDomain=contoso.com
UserID=mdt_admin
UserPassword=P@ssw0rd
SkipBDDWelcome=YES

Generating A Password File For SMTP Authentication

The password used for SMTP server authentication must be in an encrypted text file. To generate the password file, run the following command in PowerShell on the computer and logged in with the user that will be running the utility. When you run the command, you will be prompted for a username and password. Enter the username and password you want to use to authenticate to your SMTP server.

Please note: This is only required if you need to authenticate to the SMTP server when send the log via e-mail.

$creds = Get-Credential
$creds.Password | ConvertFrom-SecureString | Set-Content c:\scripts\ps-script-pwd.txt

After running the commands, you will have a text file containing the encrypted password. When configuring the -Pwd switch enter the path and file name of this file.

Configuration

Here’s a list of all the command line switches and example configurations.

Command Line Switch Description Example
-Build Location of the build share. It can be the same as the deployment share, and it can be a local or UNC path. [path]
-Deploy Location of the deployment share. It can be the same as the deployment share, and it can be a local or UNC path. [path]
-Vh Hyper-V Only - Name of the Hyper-V host if remote. If not set it will default to local. [hostname]
-Vhd The path to store the virtual hard disk file(s). If using a remote Hyper-V server the path should be relative for that server. [path]
-Boot The path to the iso file to boot from. If using a remote Hyper-V server the path should be relative for that server. [path]LiteTouchPE_x64.iso
-Vnic Hyper-V Only - Name of the virtual switch that the VM should use to communicate. "'virtual NIC name'"
-Ts The comma-separated list of task sequence ID's to build. [W11-21H2,W10-21H2]
-VBox Use this switch to use Oracle Virtual Box instead of Hyper-V N/A
-Compat Legacy Hyper-V Only - Use this switch if the Hyper-V host is Windows Server 2012 R2 and the script is running on Windows 10 or Windows Server 2016/2019. This loads the older version of the Hyper-V module, so it can manage WS2012 R2 Hyper-V VMs. N/A
-Remote Hyper-V Only - Use this switch if the Hyper-V server is a remote device. N/A
-L The path to output the log file to. [path]
-LogRotate Remove logs produced by the utility older than X days [number]
-NoBanner Use this option to hide the ASCII art title in the console. N/A
-Help Display usage information. No arguments also displays help. N/A
-ProgCheck Send notifications (email or webhook) after each Task Sequence is processed. N/A
-Subject Specify a subject line. If you leave this blank the default subject will be used "'[Server: Notification]'"
-SendTo The e-mail address the log should be sent to. For multiple address, separate with a comma. [[email protected]]
-From The e-mail address the log should be sent from. [[email protected]]
-Smtp The DNS name or IP address of the SMTP server. [smtp server address]
-Port The Port that should be used for the SMTP server. If none is specified then the default of 25 will be used. [port number]
-User The user account to authenticate to the SMTP server. [[email protected]]
-Pwd The txt file containing the encrypted password for SMTP authentication. [path]ps-script-pwd.txt
-UseSsl Configures the utility to connect to the SMTP server using SSL. N/A

Example

[path\]Image-Factory.ps1 -Build [path\] -Deploy [path\] -Boot [path\]LiteTouchPE_x64.iso -Vnic [virtual NIC name] -Ts W11-21H2,W10-21H2

This will use Hyper-V VMs on the local machine to build wim files from the task sequences W11-21H2 and W10-21H2. The wim files will be imported to the deployment share specified.

Change Log

2023-09-01: Version 23.09.01

  • Added -ProgCheck option. With this option set, notifications will be sent after each Task Sequence is processed.

2023-04-28: Version 23.04.28

  • Removed specific SMTP config info from config report.
  • Added script update checker - shows if an update is available in the log and console. If the internet is not reachable it silently errors out.

2022-06-18: Version 22.06.18

  • Fixed Get-Service check outputting to console.

2022-06-17: Version 22.06.17

  • Fixed an issue with Windows Server 2012 R2 when checking for the Hyper-V service to be installed and running.

2022-06-14: Version 22.06.07

  • Added new feature: log can now be emailed to multiple addresses.
  • Added checks and balances to help with configuration as I'm very aware that the initial configuration can be troublesome. Running the utility manually is a lot more friendly and step-by-step now.
  • Added -Help to give usage instructions in the terminal. Running the script with no options will also trigger the -help switch.
  • Cleaned user entered paths so that trailing slashes no longer break things or have otherwise unintended results.
  • Added -LogRotate [days] to removed old logs created by the utility.
  • Streamlined config report so non configured options are not shown.
  • Added donation link to the ASCII banner.
  • Cleaned up code, removed unneeded log noise.

2021-12-02: Version 21.12.01

  • Added option to use Oracle Virtual Box instead of Hyper-V.
  • Configured logs path now is created, if it does not exist.
  • Added OS version info.
  • Added an option to specify the Port for SMTP communication.

2021-06-22: Version 21.06.22

  • Added a progression bar display.
  • Changed a variable to prevent conflicts with future PowerShell versions.

2020-02-27: Version 20.02.24 ‘Robot’

New features:

  • Refactored code.
  • Fully backwards compatible.
  • Added ASCII banner art when run in the console.
  • Added option to disable the ASCII banner art.

2019-09-04 v2.9

  • Added custom subject line for e-mail.

2018-12-17 v2.8

  • The script will now set automatic checkpoints to 'disabled' on the VM's. This is to help with VM disk management and clean up.

2017-10-16 v2.7

  • Changed SMTP authentication to require an encrypted password file.
  • Added instructions on how to generate an encrypted password file.

2017-10-09 v2.6

  • Added necessary information to add the script to the PowerShell Gallery.

2017-09-18 v2.5

  • Added a sanity check of the MDT deployment share. The script now checks for an existing CustomSettings-backup.ini file. If it exists, it reports that the deployment share is not clean.
  • Added extra line breaks when editing the CustomSettings.ini as previously it was adding the required configuration on the last line of the ini file and causing the deployment to fail. Many thanks to Twitter user @thestardawg for reporting this bug.

2017-08-26 v2.4

  • Improved logging so that the log file and console output is now more readable.

2017-07-22 v2.3

  • Improved commenting on the code for documentation purposes.
  • Added authentication and SSL options for e-mail notification.

2017-05-11 v2.2

  • Added command line configuration options so the script itself does not need to be edited.
  • Added code to manage the Virtual Machines without the need for extra configuration options.
  • Removed some unnecessary extra configuration options and variables.

2017-04-25 v2.1

I've added logging to the script and the ability to email the log on completion. I've also added a variable to configure the Virtual Switch that the VM's Network Adaptor should use. This was an oversight on the previous version.

2017-04-17 Minor update

I've added hour and minutes to the WIM file creation name as I have been running multiple images of the same Task Sequence within a day and needed some extra data to prevent the image from over writing the previous one. I've also made another script, using this one as a base so I can generate VMs to test the deployment of the captured images after I've manually renamed them in MDT and added to the task sequences. The VMs are named after the Task Sequence ID and do not delete after the Task Sequence completes.